Was a really fun weekend, thanks Chris and Foggy for organising. Great to meet some new people, glad you made it to Stonehenge Janis.

Have to commend Mick T's dedication to get there!

Glad to hear you got home safely Foggy, I trust you still have good clutch bite and a well vented fuel system?

I enjoyed the one day I got to spend with guys. So glad it wasn't a meet full of chavvy teens with their hats on back to front taking about nitrousoxide and 9000 watt speakers. Drove 580 miles that day and the drive back was....lets say interesting.
I was so tired that the tail lamps of the cars in front of me made nice patterns. Very trippy. So I did the wise thing and took a short break.
Bring on the next one!! Somewhere round the North-West region would be nice

Hi

As promised, here's a small selection of pictures from the weekend.

Before we set off on Saturday, we did an oil change on Bjorn the Vario. I hadn't done it since I bought it a couple of months ago, so thought it was time to do it before heading to Southampton. Happily, it all went extremely smoothly, unlike my first oil change on PGH (my mk1 345) where the sump plug had previously been cross threaded. The engine definitely ran quieter with fresh magnatec. We also gave the car some TLC and dealt with a small patch of rust under the rear light.



Oliver also had some time to kindly clean my S60 (which is normally covered in road dust) while the paint was drying.


The run down from Cambridge to Southampton was surprisingly good. I'd never driven the car on a long journey before, so I was slightly apprehensive, but the Variomatic was very happy cruising at 65-70mph. I do find the transmission extremely noisy though, especially at about 50-55mph. The temperature needle stayed dead center, which was great, as it had been mildly overheating until I tightened the alternator belt and did this oil change.

So here are some photos from Beaulieu itself. I'm afraid I don't know everyone by name, so I shan't credit each car, but I think there is an individual picture of every 300 that came, as well as some group ones. There's also a couple of the lovely black 480.




















This was my favourite car from the museum, I think it has only covered something like 20 miles from new.


Beaulieu Abbey was also very beautiful, and the unseasonably hot weather made it feel a little like we were somewhere sophisticated in rural France.



The journey back was slow but pretty uneventful, albeit very hot in the sweltering heat in a car with no working air blower. That wasn't the end of the day though, as I had to complete a mercy mission and deliver the back lights and bumper that Foggy supplied to Nick and Sallyann in Ely, which I will report on in the original thread: http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... =2&t=12506

I have to say I was a bit knackered today at work after a pretty full-on weekend, but it was great nevertheless. Bring on next year?!?!

Siôn

Great to see you all...and a special welcome to Ephraim and Janis (and your other half, Janis...whose name I can't remember...but special thanks to her for putting up with a load of car geeks for two days!). Sorry I had to be anti-social and disappear to get the fuel hose...but I'm glad at least a few of you were brave / foolish enough to stick around and laugh at me on my return

I now have a shiny new clutch cable on the car (I found a used one, but it must have been from a 340, as it was longer...?), but it needs adjustment, as it's not quite right and grinds going into reverse. I suspect the fork isn't seated correctly, which is a problem on the redblock cars. I did the cable with the car on the ground (i.e. didn't even jack it), which with hindsight was probably a mistake. I think I'll get it back to the house for a wash and an adjustment session in a week or two.

Excellent pics, Sion! Do you mind if Chris uses them in the magazine? I very much hope we see as many of you as possible next year!

I didn't take many useful pics (a combination of not having a decent camera, and seeing that others were taking pics...and having enough on my plate dealing with my car which was misbehaving!), but I did snap a few...

Mac's Focu....sorry, S40, with a suitable warning sign!


Saturday evening pub...(note that Mac had competition for "best beard in pub"...!)


I didn't realise Rupert made it on the Sunday after all...?!


cheers

James

No problem for Chris to use my pictures, if he PMs me his email I can send the original resolutions.

I'll sort my pictures in the next day or so hopefully!

Thanks for letting have my first drive of a vario Sion! Even more tempted to get one now :s Great to meet Ephraim and Janis too

I've posted some pics on the the Volvo300Mania FB group. Would be good if peeps could update that too.

Hi all.
Looks like it was a great weekend.
I will have to get my arse into gear and get over. Maybe when its a bit
further up north. Your cars all look fantastic.
Cheers Mark.

We were discussing next year, Mark...and I think the plan will be to hold it somewhere in the north west, so that it's still near the motorway network, but more accessible for you guys in Ireland, and also for the gaggle over in the north east.

cheers

James

A couple of things I forgot to add...

I owed a couple of people (Alex Laidlaw and Pete Farrell?) change from the camping. Remind me what I owe you each, and I'll Paypal or BACS it to you, or whatever.

Although many of the attendees were from V3M, this meet started life as a Volvo Owners Club event. As 300-series register keeper for the club, I was asked 3 years ago to consider organising one 'big' model-specific event each year (as were the other register keepers). The club gave me a budget to work with, and I elected to spend it on subsidising (in the event, completely) entry to Beaulieu. The condition for extending this to non-club members was to rave about the joys of VOC membership as much as possible. Unfortunately, this was limited on the day to handing out a couple of copies of the August 'bumper' edition of the magazine (I've got a box of 50...help!), mostly because I was concerned about getting the car running again. I know I handed one to Janis, but I can't remember who else. If anyone else would like their free copy, just send me a PM with your address, and I'll get it in the post.

There is a page on the club website dedicated to explaining the benefits of membership (http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/benefits.shtml). To be fair, most of it apart from the magazine can either be obtained elsewhere, or isn't relevant to V3M members, but if you like the look of the magazine, or just like the idea of supporting an organisation which promotes Volvo ownership and aims to assist enthusiasts, do consider joining. Beyond that, there's absolutely no obligation or pressure...and let that be my final word on the subject!

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:A couple of things I forgot to add...

I owed a couple of people (Alex Laidlaw and Pete Farrell?) change from the camping. Remind me what I owe you each, and I'll Paypal or BACS it to you, or whatever.

Don't worry about it Foggy, put the 50p towards your new clutch cable fund...

Alex Laidlaw wrote:

foggyjames wrote:A couple of things I forgot to add...

I owed a couple of people (Alex Laidlaw and Pete Farrell?) change from the camping. Remind me what I owe you each, and I'll Paypal or BACS it to you, or whatever.

Don't worry about it Foggy, put the 50p towards your new clutch cable fund...

^^

A quick thought for next year, hold it in June/July/August rather than October I reckon

Yeah, then we could have the June rain rather than the 28degrees recorded in the forest over the weekend

Seriously, why weren't you there? Driving round the forest with the roof off the 5 would have been amazing, I've done it lots of times

A quick thought for next year you Brummie tart...TURN UP!

cheers

James